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It´s old, but it´s a jewel. I’m are talking about the “abandonware” Sierra´s Hoyle Casino, a game that allowed you to take in all the excitement of high-rolling in Vegas, complete with chatty opponents, witty croupiers, and free drinks (just kidding). It´s funny but people used to spend several hours in the real casino, and some more at home practicing in this game. Someone once called it “a very accurate Casino Simulator” and it is.

The game started with 5,000 smackers to spend as you please in the five lushly detailed games: Roulette, Slot Machines, Craps, a variety of Poker games, and the original Hoyle Blackjack. This game is all for your gambling and enjoyment, maybe practice, but mostly fun. You can wander around the casino point-and-click fashion to choose a table or simply select a game from a pull-down menu. Lose all your dough? Try to scrape up a few bucks on the nickel slots to throw down on the pass-line, or hit up the local loan sharks when the casino denizens unexpectedly turn the tables on you.

Some even use it as a valid practice for real games like the instant win lottery games, to relax and enter them in a good mood. Of course, this casino game had some bizarre mixture of personalities you normally encounter on the casino floor. Yes, I’m talking about everything from a sardonic James Bond to a capricious southern gentleman and the tough guy who swills his beer every few minutes among others, both haughty and humorous. The gambling patrons and pit bosses whom you often sharing a table with really add to the casino atmosphere – though you may at times feel like chucking all your chips at them. Fortunately, if you’re the type of player who just likes to sit down and gamble seriously, you can just turn the attitude meter down and everyone will shut up.

Any fan of gambling games who appreciates subtle details will surely enjoy Hoyle Casino. Following in the tradition of the Sierra Hoyle series, everything from the roulette wheel to the craps dice has been rendered with the most tactile detail. In another hand, the games are presented just how computer gamblers like them: nice and straightforward. If you want to play it (it´s been 21 years since its release), you need to write a letter to what´s left of Sierra and ask for a copy. In the meantime, you can play a very similar game at www.myabandonware.com

There are some very serious projects going on to rescue all these games and upload them to a free accessible website. There are some examples like the website we quoted before, but the new enterprises want to collect “them all” in a few years. We wish them the best of lucks since there are a few titles like Hoyle Casino that we gamers will like to enjoy again. Maybe is a bit of nostalgia for games with a great level of detail and above all, no DLCs, no microtransactions, no online bullying, just games and tons of fun.

***In corporation with Lottoland***